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Worst wrestler/manager combination ever?


Judy Bagwell

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Harley Race and the Collossal Kongs. Not only was Race not able to get the Kongs over (a Herculean task for anyone), even as a kid I wondered why Race was managing these losers. Harley had only managed world champions in Luger and Vader, and in my eyes would only manage the elite. The Kongs were so obviously not on the level of Race's other charges, and it actually diminished Race's aura for me.

And Yoshi Kwan too.

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Harley and the Kongs is an excellent call. Seeing them in a Worldwide squash, even as a kid they looked so fucking bushleague in their fur coats and black spandex, and wondering why Race of all people was with two dime store Vaders when he had the real deal at the same time.

 

I will concede to being scared of Yoshi Kwan when I was six, however. Think it was the eyebrows.

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Teddy Long with Joey Maggs.

 

Teddy Long managed a bunch of jobbers during the Nitro era, which made no sense and was a giant waste of Long's potential. His success in the WWF a half-dozen years later is proof that WCW had no idea how to use most of the people they had.

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Jimmy Hart was really discarded post-Hogan there too. Okay he managed Meng but they never really pushed Meng past "kills jobbers, jobs to (flavor of the day)". Hell, I was never even that clear why Hogan was being teamed with a mouthpiece anyway. He was really weirdly used by WCW.

 

I was actually pretty baffled by Hart's seeming status in wrestling before Memphis stuff started being easily accessible on Youtube and whatnot. He's really not a guy I think was ever particularly well used by the WWF or WCW as a character.

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Johnny Valiant managing Demolition. Valiant is a loud New Yorker, yet he's with the new monster, kickass heels.

 

Grand Wizard and Sgt. Slaughter. There is Wiz in his sparkling suit and turban, there is Sarge in his former Marine get up.

 

Heyman with Curtis Axel. Not even Heyman could make this chump look credible.

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Fuji managing Demolition never worked. Either time. They should have turned them face way before they actually did, and had Fuji bring in the Powers of Pain as heels to get revenge. I think they put Fuji with them in 1990 just to cool them off, make sure the fans were behind the LOD, and to downgrade the team to mid-cart after that feud was over.

 

Heenan would have been a good choice instead in 1990. Bobby didn't have a tag team, and Fuj already had the Orient Express.

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  • 3 years later...

My time watching Mid Atlantic in 1984 produced an odd pairing: The Zambuie Express, which was Leroy Brown and Ray Candy doing a black Muslim militant gimmick,  managed by #1 Paul Jones.  They could have been great heels since they were two big scary mofos , but it just killed their character to be managed by the walking embodiment of what they were supposed to be against.

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5 minutes ago, flyonthewall2983 said:

Bobby Heenan hasn't been mentioned once, other than the story of Rude hating being managed by him. I never saw him with The Missing Link, but I would guess that counted maybe?

Gotta disagree in that Heenan I feel was perfect for The Missing Link.  The entire schtick they did was Heenan was a guy who was completely incapable of handling him while also bragging about being able to handle him.  It fit the Heenan character of the time perfectly in thinking he could handle literally anything and then rather than admitting Link was too out of control for him, doubling down on it.  Them giving The Missing Link to Jimmy Hart would be on the list of terrible combinations though.  Hart didn't really have the same sense of timing Heenan did wrt The Link.

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1 hour ago, flyonthewall2983 said:

Hiro Matsuda managing Ric Flair. Could have made sense if they had him feuding with Great Muta as a face, but just barely. 

That's one of those things that was a capsule of its time that seems odd now. At the time there was an anti Japanese trend since their economy was booming and they were buying/getting interest in traditionally American companies or landmarks. Matsuda "took over" control of the Horsemen in a wrestling version of that.

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Harlem Heat with Jacquelyn didn't work at all. 

Flair and Sherri never made much sense to me either.

Pairings that shouldn't have worked but DID: Harlem Heat and Sister Sherri, Kevin Sullivan and Jacquelyn, Anderson/Eaton and MPS Hayes (lasted only a few weeks, but it was amazing). 

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On 8/16/2019 at 4:08 AM, JRH said:

Stan Hansen being managed by Freddie Blassie in early 80s WWF. You had roughneck Hansen being managed by a guy in a glittey coat. Didnt fit together at all.

Blassie would often get the big goons and foreigners. Wizard the more technical guys, and Albano the tag teams.

For example, as well as Hansen, Blassie managed Ivan Koloff in his comeback runs, Swede Hanson, Killer Khan, Blackjack Mulligan, George Steele, Dick Murdoch.

So Blassie managing a big cowboy was nothing out of the ordinary at all.

 

Similarly, when Sarge — a more technical guy — was with Wizard, that was not unusual either.

One thing I noticed is that generally Wizard would manage the top heel and Blassie would manage the “monster of the month”, while Albano would be involved in more angles.

Vince Jr kept some remnant of this structure for a time with Heenan in Wizard role, Slick in Blassie role and Jimmy Hart in Albano role. Mr Fuji was more of a lower card manager.

 

There was even a storyline with Slick buying out Blassie’s contracts. And that’s why Slick mostly managed big monsters like Boss Man, Akeem, Hercules, Bolsheviks, Warlord, Kamala, etc.

 

 

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